SQL Language Extension for Nova

Provides advanced SQL support for Nova — syntax highlighting, code folding, document outline, completions and a bundled language server (keyword hover, schema intelligence) for 16 SQL dialects, powered by Tree-sitter SQL.

Tree-sitter Parser

This extension uses the Tree-sitter SQL parser by Derek Stride for precise and performant syntax highlighting, code folding and the document outline shown in Nova's sidebar.

Supported SQL Dialects

• Generic SQL
• MySQL
• MariaDB
• PostgreSQL
• SQLite
• T-SQL
• PL/SQL
• SQL PL (DB2)
• N1QL
• Trino
• Redshift
• SingleStore
• Snowflake
• SparkSQL
• BigQuery
• HiveQL
• FlinkSQL

Recognized File Extensions

The extension automatically recognizes files with these extensions:

.sql, .ddl, .tsql, .psql, .pgsql, .mysql, .hqsql, .hql, .q,
.pls, .bdy, .fnc, .pck, .pkb, .pks, .plb, .plsql, .prc, .spc, .tpb, .tps, .trg, .vw,
.db2, .db2i, .cql, .inc, .tab, .udf, .viw,
.sqlite, .sqlite3, .bq, .bigquery,
.sf.sql, .rs.sql, .trino.sql, .singlestore.sql,
.spark.sql, .flink.sql, .flinksql, .n1ql, .mariadb.sql

This ensures seamless integration with your existing SQL files without additional configuration.

Note: compound extensions (.sf.sql and friends) are matched against everything after the first dot in the filename. Keep the part before the extension dot-free — report.sf.sql detects as Snowflake, while my.report.sf.sql falls back to generic SQL. Use hyphens instead of dots for prefixed names (my-report.sf.sql).

Ambiguous files can also declare their dialect in the first line with a hint comment: -- @mariadb (or -- syntax:mariadb). A plain .sql file with such a hint detects as MariaDB. The same works for every supported dialect except generic SQL — available hints:

@mysql, @mariadb, @postgresql, @tsql, @plsql, @sqlite, @bigquery,
@flinksql, @hiveql, @n1ql, @redshift, @singlestore, @snowflake,
@sparksql, @sqlpl

Language Server

The extension bundles the sqls language server (a universal, Developer ID–signed binary — no runtime dependencies). When enabled (default), it provides:

• Keyword hover documentation — hovering SELECT, WHERE, RLIKE, … explains the keyword: ~1650 keywords covered, spanning the full vocabulary of the bundled grammar. Reference links in the footer match the open file's dialect — PostgreSQL docs in PostgreSQL files, MySQL docs in MySQL files, MariaDB Knowledge Base in MariaDB files, Microsoft Learn in T-SQL files, and so on for all supported dialects. Generic SQL documents show the description only, since no canonical standard-SQL reference exists
• Hover documentation for tables, columns and sub-queries when a database connection is configured
• Schema-aware completions — tables, columns and JOIN suggestions when a database connection is configured
• Dialect-correct keyword completions — without a database connection, keyword and function completions are picked from the list matching the document's dialect (MySQL, PostgreSQL, T-SQL, SQLite, Oracle); dialects without an sqls driver (Snowflake, BigQuery, Trino, …) get the core SQL keyword table
• Signature help for function calls

Everything works without a database too, but hover on table/column names becomes much richer with one. Configure connections in ~/.config/sqls/config.yml, e.g.:

lowercaseKeywords: false
connections:
  - driver: "postgresql"
    dataSourceName: "host=127.0.0.1 port=5432 user=postgres dbname=mydb sslmode=disable"

Completions

Nova-side completions (Completions/SQL.xml) cover ~4100 entries across all 16 dialects: per-dialect keyword, datatype and function sets. The driver-backed dialects (MySQL/MariaDB, PostgreSQL, T-SQL, SQLite, PL/SQL) are generated from the sqls dialect lists; the cloud/embedded dialects (Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift, SparkSQL, Trino, HiveQL, FlinkSQL, SingleStore, N1QL, SQL PL) carry curated lists.

Or set a custom binary path / disable the server entirely in Extension Preferences. Commands: Restart Language Server and Language Server Info (Extensions menu).

The bundled binary is a modified sqls (keyword hover feature, added via patches/sqls/ in the extension repository and rebuilt with scripts/build-sqls.sh). sqls is MIT-licensed by its authors.